PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL HARMONY
Speaking in general terms, it may be said that things harmonize, or go well together when they are more or less alike, and that they may be alike either because they look alike or because they affect the mind in the same way.
For example, if you cover a Sheraton satinwood bed with a fine silk taffeta spread in apricot, the two units will be harmonious because both wood and taffeta are in colors which contain a large admixture of the same hue, namely yellow. Moreover, they also will be harmonious because the fine lines and slender proportions of the bed affect the mind with a sense of delicacy and daintiness, and the fine texture, silken luster, and pale coloring of the taffeta affect it in precisely the same way. We can call the first type of harmony physical, and the second type emotional. Both are basically important in the art of interior decoration, and make surprisingly powerful sales levers in dealing with that 60 percent of potential buyers whose primary interest in furniture lies in what it will do to make their homes more attractive.
Tests for physical harmony.—There are numerous tests which might be made by a salesman on the floor such as placing a square white handkerchief on a mahogany gate-leg table and placing under it a pearl grey rug to illustrate inharmonious effect resulting from the fact that the three elements are unlike in hue, tone (degree of light and dark), defining lines, shape, and texture.
A much simpler method is to compare room harmony with ladies wearing apparel. Let us suppose a woman put on a brown dress, white belt, and pearl-grey shoes. Of course, the effect would be most inharmonious. On the other hand, suppose she substituted a gold belt and brown shoes. A harmonious effect would be achieved as was done in the instance previously referred to, in which a dull gold velvet or satin, folded to the same width as the table, was laid on the table and a deep warm taupe or mahogany-colored rug substituted for the pearl-grey carpet.
Good rules to follow for harmonious physical harmony are:
1. All elements of a grouping should be united by a common strain of color regardless of whether that common strain is a warm or cool color.
2. All elements of a grouping should resemble each other in a textural effect.
3. Accessories should resemble the piece with which they are used in correct proportion to the whole.